A little boy went
into a store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He
climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and
proceeded to punch in seven digits. The store owner observed and listened to
the conversation.

The boy asked,
"Madam, Can you give me the job of cutting your law n?" The woman
replied, "I already have someone to cut my lawn."

"I will cut
your lawn for half the price of the person who cuts your lawn now."
replied the boy. The woman responded that she was very satisfied with the
person who was presently cutting her lawn.

The little boy was
even more perseverant and said, "I'll even sweep your curb and your
sidewalk, so on Sunday you will have the prettiest lawn in all of Palm beach,
Florida." Again the woman answered in the negative.

With a smile on his
face, the little boy replaced the receiver.

The store owner,
who was listening to this conversation, walked over to the boy and said,
"Son... I like your attitude; I like that positive spirit and would like
to offer you a job."

The little boy
replied, "No thanks, I was just checking my performance on the job I
already have. I am the one who is working for the lady I was talking to.

This is what we call ‘Self Appraisal’. Every time if we
don’t get ahead of others, we blame others for it. We should look to our self
and compare, find own weaknesses and work hard to throw away weaknesses. Always
Work Hard, Honest and with full Dedication. It will always pay up.

Have you ever had
people annoy you at work? Or maybe family members whose little habits bothered
you? Have you been frustrated by a store clerk or waiter, or maybe the traffic?
What about frustration with your kid, or spouse?

How can we become
more tolerant, find calm in the middle of all of these annoyances and
frustrations?

For me, when I
remember, the answer lies in getting outside of myself.

Nearly every moment
of every day of our entire lives is spent worrying about ourselves. We are
preoccupied by concern about ourselves: am I doing the right thing, will I mess
this up, will I be able to meet deadline, what do other people think of me, am
I good enough, why is this happening to me, how can I get better, why don’t
people listen to me, why don’t they treat me better, why can’t they get out of
my way, why is my body so fat, why don’t things go my way, am I missing out on
things?

But what if we were
freed of this worry about ourselves?

What if, for a
little while, we could assume our selves were being taken care of, comforted
and protected and accepted?

What if we could
stop this Thinking About Self for awhile, and do something else?

Wouldn’t this be a bit
liberating? Wouldn’t it be nice to get free of this preoccupation that has
taken up our entire lives?

I, for one, welcome
this opportunity.

So what happens
when we are freed of worrying about ourselves? We can now start looking in on
other people, and finding out what they’re like, what they’re going through. It
turns out, they are suffering just as much as we are. They are constantly
worried about the same things, wanting to be happy but worried about themselves
and wondering why this guy is always acting irritated with them.

We can see this
suffering, and understand what it’s like, because we’ve just come from our own
minds, where the same kinds of things have been going on for years. We can
empathize.

We can also want
them to suffer less, and maybe comfort them, give them compassion.

Returning to our
own minds, arms full of this new information and empathy and compassion … we
can maybe be more tolerant when someone doesn’t behave “perfectly” (as if we
ever behave perfectly ourselves), when someone is rude or slow or loud. Maybe
we can even act kindly towards them, give them a mental hug and see how we can
help them.

Of course, it’s
easy to return to our self-preoccupied state. I always return here, because
it’s such a strongly-ingrained mental habit. But I can see this happening
sometimes, and try to get out of the little space that’s my self-preoccupied
mind.

Even for the
briefest moment, this little bit of floating around can bring a small measure
of lightness and happiness. And if you practice it repeatedly, it’s a
liberation like no other.